2.5 Customer satisfaction and Customer Loyalty

2.5 Customer satisfaction and Customer Loyalty

Through out the years, professional studies as well as trade publications, have justified the importance of satisfaction. Yuksel and Rimmington (1998)noted  that the benefits of customer satisfaction evaluation is central when identifying product and service differentiation, increasing customer retention, creating intentions to recommend, and encouraging positive word of mouth communication.

 service organizations realize that an effective system is a vital means to increase  customer satisfaction and a long term relationship .Then they get  the  customer loyalty and positive behavioral intentions (Tax, Brown & Chandrashekaran, 1998).

To support the importance of cumulative satisfaction, Olsen and Johnson (2003) found that customer loyalty and repurchase intentions are based on a broader consumption history and are able to explain more variation in loyalty; therefore, service providers must concentrate on satisfaction over the course of the service provider-customer relationship.  

What is valuable about loyal customers is that that they will display their loyalty by giving positive feedback and word-of-mouth. Therefore customer satisfaction is considered by everyone to be a very valuable factor. Kim, Lee, and Yoo (2006)

In response to the vast amounts of research as shown above, service providers have slowly come to realize that satisfied customers are truly assets to the organization. 

 For example   Dell’s  “beginning with the customer and ending with the customer” made  Dell to provide personalized service for their customers which can lead to customer satisfaction indeed. (Dell, 1999).